HEART2HEART

chapter 5: kimchi fried rice

"Damn it," Taehyung muttered under his breath as he looked up at the signboard, realising that he had somehow ended up at the PC café again. "I wasn't supposed to come here."

Muscle memory sure was a scary (yet, also kinda remarkable) thing.

"But since I'm already here..." Taehyung was just lying to himself at this point. "Shall I just take a quick look?"

He pushed the door open a little more eagerly than a person who initially seemed reluctant would.

"Kim Taehyung! You're finally back!" Jimin, the PC café owner, welcomed him back with open arms. "I haven't seen you in approximately 19 years, my dude."

"4 days," Taehyung corrected calmly, as his eyes darted around the PC café.

Jimin observed him carefully. "Looking for someone?"

Taehyung swatted his hand around nonchalantly. "Nah, what are you talking about."

"That was her first and last time she was here," Jimin said with a knowing grin as he nudged Taehyung in the ribcage. "Just thought you might wanna know."

"Who?" Taehyung feigned ignorance, pretending not to know who Jimin was talking about when he clearly did. "What are you even talking about?"

"Kim Jisoo."

Now, Taehyung was really clueless. "Who's that?"

"Who else?" Jimin burst into laughter. "The girl who completely demolished you in MapleStory, only to leave you with the seat you wanted, Kim Jisoo? The girl who embarrassed you like crazy, Kim Jisoo? The girl you're now completely enamoured with, Kim Jisoo? The girl whom you owe 50,000 won but-"

So Kim Jisoo was her name.

"Okay, enough-" Taehyung scoffed. "Firstly, she didn't completely demolish me-"

"Okay, but she did."

"Secondly-" Taehyung scowled. "I'm not that embarrassed-"

"Says the gaming addict who never skips a day of gaming but hasn't showed up since that day."

"I'm here again, ain't I?" Taehyung rolled his eyes. "Man's busy, okay. And lastly, I'm not completely enamoured with her. I just find her slightly charming and that's all. Okay?"

"Okay-" Jimin glanced towards the door. "Oh-? Kim Jisoo!"

"Where?" Taehyung swirled around at once. "Where? What?"

Jimin burst into laughter as he imitated Taehyung mockingly. "I just find her slightly charming~ yadee yadee ya..."

Taehyung let out the loudest groan, realising that Jimin had tricked him once again. "I'm done with this PC café, goodbye."

"You sure?" Jimin laughed. "So you're not interested in the note she left you then?"

"I don't wanna believe you anymore-" Taehyung crossed his arms, side-eyeing Jimin. "You said she didn't come in since Monday. How did she leave a note for me?"

"While you were busy bawling your eyes out after losing to her that night-" Jimin explained, as he reached under his counter and pulled out a small slip of paper. "She came to the counter and asked me for pen and paper. She wrote a note and asked me to hand it to you the next time you returned. But you didn't return till today, so I had no chance to pass it to you."

Taehyung was still skeptical.

"So... no?" Jimin clipped the slip of paper between his index and middle fingers, hovering it over the bin. "Shall I just bin it?"